KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful earthquake that shook Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan has killed about 1,200 people, aid officials said Tuesday. The Afghan Defense Ministry says 600 bodies had been recovered by early afternoon from villages still shaking from frequent aftershocks.
ACTED, a private aid organization, said its estimates came from staffers in the devastated area 90 miles north of Kabul on the slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains, where Monday's quake was centered.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters that he understood the death toll may reach 1,800, attributing the information to interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai. A palace official said the figure was what Karzai understood the toll to be.
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